Tuesday 16 January 2007

OS-X Instant Messaging

Apart from iChat, that comes bundled with OS-X but can only connect to a limited number of networks, most OS-X versions of instant messaging clients, like MSN Messenger, are fairly poor compared to their PC counterparts. An interesting alternative I discovered recently is Adium. It is quite basic in terms os features so far but it can connect to an impressive list of networks, including MSN, Yahoo, Google Chat, ICQ and quite a few obscure ones, which means that you only ever need one chat client open. It currently doesn't support voice or video but it's definitely on their to-do list. Nor does it support extended animated smileys like MSN does, although you could argue that's rather a good thing. A very nice feature is the ability to use tabs rather than individual windows for each thread of discussion. You can even have a hybrid setting whereby you have one window per group of contacts and tabs inside each window. And of course, in typical open source geeky fashion, most settings can be changed through the preferences and you can completely customise it using AppleScript.

Sunday 14 January 2007

Tell me what you recycle...

Tuesday was the first day of the year the recycling green boxes were collected where I live. My box was full of the usual stuff: paper, a few bottles and cans, nothing special really. The boxes of some of my neighbours were vastly more interesting. The first one down the road contained its usual pile of newspapers, as the guy there seems to be an avid consumer of Sunday papers. He never has any bottles or cans in his box so I wonder if he ever eats in between the Sunday Times and the News of the World. The next one down had a box full of a dozen wine bottles. Obviously, there was some serious partying there! The next one down had a couple of large empty Quality Street chocolates boxes. There was some partying there as well but of a different kind.

Saturday 6 January 2007

Urinal Theft

We've all done it: sneakily hiding a glass or other piece of crockery in a bag while having a drink in a pub and take it home to complete our collection of pub memorabilia. One guy in Southampton went further and stole a urinal. He even wiped his fingerprints from the door to make it the perfect theft. Why would you ever go to that much trouble for a urinal... and then get caught on CCTV? Or is it that he doesn't have a B&Q close to where he lives?

Not bothered about voting

According to The Register, Americans are more concerned with the integrity of casino betting machines than electronic voting system. Maybe they should organise a lottery to elect their next president rather than bother with voting?